RENEGOTIATING FAITH

The Delay in Young Adult Identity Formation and What it Means for the Church in Canada

A Research Partnership of

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You’re here because you care about the next generation of students in Canada.

Renegotiating Faith: The Delay in Young Adult Identity Formation and What It Means for the Church in Canada is the fruit of a research partnership between Power to Change – Students, InterVarsity, Youth for Christ, Truth Matters Ministries and The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. Click here to learn more about our research partnership.

Renegotiating Faith looks at the transition from high school to the next stage in life for Canadians age 18 to 28 who had a Christian religious affiliation as a teen and who attended religious services at least monthly at some point during their teen years.

Everyone connected with this research cares very deeply about our young adults’ relationships with Christ and their spiritual formation. We hope and pray you’ll find this research helpful in your ministry with Canada’s youth and young adults.

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“Roughly four in five young adults who go on to connect with either a campus group or a new church do so within the first month of starting at a new school or new location. This means that making timely connections with new Christian communities is critical.”

Renegotiating Faith: The Delay in Young Adult Identity Formation and What It Means for the Church in Canada

“The Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO), the Fear of Not Being Amazing (FNBA), and the Fear Of Passionless Monotony (FOPM) press in on young adults ever more as they approach age 30, which, for many, marks the limit of emerging adulthood and a forced entry into adulthood.

"In the work I do with The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada I encounter many church and organization leaders who are looking for thoughtful and data-rich responses to the challenges they face in their ministry. Renegotiating Faith provides all of that, along with the key element of hopefulness: the emphasis on developing an intergenerational church community, along with intentional mentoring practices, is good for all of us!"

"The data, stories and underlying themes contained in the Renegotiating Faith research are extremely important, not just for those of us who work directly among youth in Canada, but to anyone who cares about them. Growing up – making the transition to an emerging adult – is more difficult for youth today than it was even 20 years ago. Through this research, we hear from young adults themselves as they share their fears and hopes, and the reasons for significant decisions in their lives. One of the most concerning aspects of this research is what it reveals about young adults attitude toward faith and how easily they dismiss it. One of the most hopeful aspects of the research is what young adults are telling us will make a difference to them when it comes to faith. Young adults are not opposed to following Jesus, but there is much in this research for all of us in the Church to think about and put into action if we are going to help them along the way. I encourage every committed follower of Jesus to read this research, to pray through it and to reach out to the young people in their lives. It will make a difference."

Geri Rodman
President, InterVarsity

"As I connect with other ministry leaders, I continually hear us awakening to the same reality: the biggest issue facing the Church in Canada is our need to learn together how to effectively engage today's generation of young people with the gospel. The future of the Church depends on it. The future direction of Canada will be profoundly shaped by it. As we wrestle with this, Renegotiating Faith provides invaluable insight into what is happening in the lives of our young adults. Offering a depth of insight into the challenges and dynamics around emerging adulthood, it gives us an enhanced ability to empathize with young adults, come alongside them, and help them negotiate a seat at the table in Christian community as adults. We cannot underestimate the role of mentors in shaping the formations of faith in a young person's life. Parents, youth workers, pastors - I encourage anyone who works with and cares about youth to learn from this study. I have no doubt that they will be helped and encouraged as they prayerfully consider it's implications. May we come together as the Church across Canada to support a generation of young people who desperately need to experience deeply, as adults, how knowing Jesus changes everything."

Sean Cullen
National Director, Power to Change - Students

"The world of our Young Adults in Canada has seen significant, complex and far-reaching change in a very short period of time. How young adults engage faith has been of great concern to our church in Canada and to young adults, their parents, mentors and church communities. Renegotiating Faith is timely, helpful, and hopeful. It provides some helpful handles for dialogue with churches and young adults as we seek to bridge the seeming divide between a culture disinterested or resentful toward Christian faith, and the Church in Canada which has been confused, fearful and slow to act when it comes to redemptively engaging the world of Young Adults. Renegotiating Faith provides a sense of hope for ministry leaders, mentors and parents who will see signs of hope and particular practices that are not daunting but will make a tremendous difference in the lives of Young Adults. My hope is that it will light a fire underneath our feet to help the entire church in Canada actively venture into a seemingly foreign culture with magnificent good news!"

"Having an accurate picture of what's happening to the faith of a generation is an unmitigated gift to those of us called to help that faith grow. As a local church leader, these findings are also reminding us of the value in partnering with other organizations that are positioned close to our young adults in order that all of our influence might be multiplied. The faith of future generations will surely be brighter if we take seriously the discoveries in Renegotiating Faith."

“In the past, much of youth and young adult ministry has been organized on the assumption that identity formation was taking place in high school while young adults were still part of the Christian community that they belonged to because they were part of their family of origin. Today, most young adults are forming their identities after they have left these Christian communities. This means they are forming their identities within the communities that are available to them, often in a new school or work setting.

From the Foreword of the Renegotiating Faith report:

On July 24, 2015, I picked up an email in the EFC general inbox from Anton Lim of the ministry Power to Change – Students. He was looking for information on how to respond to the 2011 Hemorrhaging Faith study “specifically as it relates to young adults who are transitioning from high school to postsecondary [education].”

The Hemorrhaging Faith study told us that transitions are often exit points for young adults, but it did not help us answer Anton’s question. We very quickly began a conversation with Aileen Van Ginkel about how best to organize a research partnership that would look at a wider version of Anton’s question: How can we help young adults who are transitioning from high school to the next phase in life, wherever they are headed, stay connected to church and faith?

On May 16, 2016, about 40 youth and young adult ministry experts from across Canada came together at the Crossroads Christian Communications Centre in Burlington, Ontario, to talk about the research question. This consultation helped define the parameters for the research, identify the literature we needed to consult, and network us with frontline ministry experts.

The partners decided from the beginning that this needed to be research for the whole Church in Canada. Along the way, we have consulted with experts from Catholic, Mainline Protestant and Orthodox communities, and our datasets include Canadians from all these communities. Orthodox data appears sparsely in this report simply because our networks into those communities are underdeveloped.

There is much more in the data than we can include in this report. A Christian higher education dataset that is not included in this report will be dealt with in a paper to be presented at the Christian Higher Education Canada annual general meeting in October 2018. The data also speaks to topics not covered in this report.

YATR is ministry research. It is cross-disciplinary, as all ministry is. It is part sociology, part theological reflection, part psychology, part media theory, part philosophy and part ministry application. It is research for the Church and for those who minister to youth and young adults. Everyone connected to this project cares deeply about removing barriers to faith for youth and young adults and helping them to mature and grow their Christian faith.

We hope you’ll find something in these pages that is helpful for your ministry.

“According to psychologist Erik Erikson, identity is formed when an individual negotiates a role in a community. Emerging adulthood often finds young adults living away from family, their home church and other Christian communities at the point in life where they are negotiating these roles. This means they are unlikely to negotiate a role in a Christian community.”

Join us at a live presentation:

Throughout the year there are a number of opportunities to hear Rick Hiemstra, lead researcher of Renegotiating Faith, provide a presentation. Come join these to engage further.